I wanted to purchase a pair of skew chisel for paring into
tight corners. The price of a good pair was high.... though I love
Lie-Nielsen chisels I simply did not want to pay the freight on a
pair of chisels with such a specific use.

I decided to make me a pair. The first order of business
was to decide the skew angle. I searched the Net and found that the
range of skew angles was dramatic...from 20 to 45 degrees. I opted
for 20 degrees of skew. The cutting bevel was set at 30 degrees.

In order to properly grind that skew angle I needed a jig
that would allow me to set and effectively hold that angle. I did
not have a jig for skew angles for my Tormek 7.

So I secured a Tormek SVS-50 jig to do the job.

The jig is designed to hold the
chisel in the grooves by tightening knob number 4 to secure the unit.

The chisels that I choose for this alteration
were Narex Premium bench chisels. These Czech-made chisels had gotten
numerous favorable reviews as being "good for the money."
I figured I wanted them cheap enough to not lose much if I trashed them...but
good enough to want to keep them if the skew grinding turned out well.

After I held one at Highland Woodworking...I
decided that I liked it and bought a pair of the 10 mm bench chisels.

Pretty good value for $14 a pop.

Being newly come to the task of sharpening...I had previously
bought a Veritas MKII honing guide to get started learning to hone.

While at Highland I picked up the Veritas Skew Registration
Jig for the MK II guide.

It is a very clever device that allows you to set the chisel
at a full range of skew angles.

We started the process by putting the Narex
chisel in the SVS-50 jig to grind on the Tormek. You must set the skew
angle, determine the protrusion of the tool in the jig, and move the
universal support. These factors control the skew angle and the bevel
angle.

We immediately had a huge problem. The geometry of the Narex chisel
was such that it would not sit squarely between the the groove in the
side of the open seat housing and the groove of the tighening screw
assembly.

The quick work-around was to put a longitudinal
goove in a dowel...we did this with a triangular file...this would allow
the sharp side bevel edge of the Narex to sit in the dowel slot which
in turn sat well in the side groove of the jig.

Iteration #2 of the "dowel thingie"
was cut with a fine saw kerf...and this solved the jig issue.

We were able to effectively square up in the chisel in the seating grooves.

Here you can see how the jig is setup. The
jig rest is moved to the front of the T-7 and situated so that the grinding
wheel is moving away from the jig bar. This makes it easier to control
the unit.

This jig simply rests on the jig bar. It does
not slide over the bar with fixed holes like the normal chisel jig is
situated.

The jig has a little different feel to it...it
took some time get accustomed to it...but it did an effective job...here
is the unit after grinding the bevel on the left skew chisel.

After setting the bevel angle we secured the
Narex into the MKII guide. As James moved through the grit progression
all seemed well until it became obvious that the geometry of the Narex
was causing problems again. Because of the skew angle and the side bevel
angle of the chisel the MKII would lose the grip on the chisel.

A couple of tries showed repeat failure and
we were too tired to sort out a fix. The image shows how it failed.
The honing caused variable angles on the end of the chisel.

I opted to use a free hand approach to the honing. I am very
much a rookie at this but inspired by reading and rereading Maurice
Fraser and Bob Mathison's honing
guide I gave it a try.

I did all of the honing and polishing by doing the run through
the "abrasives on glass" series.

The results were not exceptional...I have a lot to learn...but
they were satisfactory.

The image shows the out-of-box Narex and the skew ground
Narex.

Now to make the opposite skew to have the pair.

Ground the right skew chisel on the Tormek
to ...

Hand honed the right skew on a succession
of Norton waterstones that I just bought. (1000x, 4000x, and 8000x).

Finished products. After a bit of trial use I declare them
to be a great value. Only time will tell how well the edge is retained.

They will never compare to LN chisels, but they were $28
instead of $130.